Various systems are available chiefly for passenger cars, which detect vehicles in the blind spot of an automobile and indicate this in the mirror, for instance, or output an acoustic warning.
These systems are based on ultrasonic or radar systems, for example.
Owing to the helmet, motorcyclists have a limited field of view to the side and to the rear. Because of this, there is great danger of failing to notice a vehicle when changing lanes. Moreover, owing to the driving noise, it is noisy under the helmet, so that acoustic awareness of the vehicles to the side is also limited.
U.S. Patent Application Pub. No. 2013/0311075 A1 describes a safety system for motorcycles, this safety system including at least one sensor that is mounted on the motorcycle and senses features in the area surrounding the vehicle. In addition, an electronic control unit is implemented in such a way that the control unit receives a signal from the at least one sensor and, as a function of the at least one feature, determines the likelihood that a circumstance critical with regard to safety could occur. The determined likelihood is then compared to at least a first threshold value, and the electronic control unit is designed in such a way that at least one warning signal is output if the at least one feature lies above the first threshold value. For example, the warning signal may then be indicated in a helmet. In this context, the safety system may be one of the following systems: a blind-spot system, a crash warning system, a crossing-traffic warning system, a lane-departure warning system or a traffic-sign recognition system.